US bail and remand…

Nov 2, 2017

(Ed Note: This past week the communiqué has experienced a hardware glitch that ultimately required an extensive amount of revision of the lists of recipients. We had a problem with some recipients getting more than one copy of the e-mail and we have had to do extensive revamping. We think the problem is solved now and we offer both this delayed edition from Nov. 2 and our apologies for any inconvenience. Please let us know if there is any mishap from this point forward of if there is any error. Thanks for both your patience and your support.)

Globe and Mail – Julie Macfarlane

Millard’s self-representation in murder trial an example of growing crisis

Millard is the accused in a murder case who cross-examine both the father and the boyfriend of the victim. Macfarlane is project director, National Self-Represented Litigants Project, and professor of law, University of Windsor and uses the case and the distasteful scene to raise an issue around the increasing numbers of people self-representing themselves in courtrooms. How widespread is the problem: “More than 50 per cent of those appearing in family court (and up to 80 per cent in some downtown Toronto courts) are coming without a lawyer. In civil and appeal courts, the numbers are creeping up above 30 per cent.” MacFarlane is project director, National Self-Represented Litigants Project, and professor of law, University of Windsor. https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/amp/opinion/self-representation-is-an-expanding-crisis-for-our-courts/article36797362/

The Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, University of Toronto, – Anthony Doob and Rosemary Gartner

Criminological Highlights

Following the usual format, the Newsletter brings a number of diverse issue under scrutiny. This issue of Criminological Highlights addresses the following questions:

How can school policies affect crime? Why do Black Americans have less confidence in the police than White Americans? What kinds of jobs will reduce offending among those who have been involved in crime? How do courts punish those who have not been found guilty? Does what men look like affect the sentences they receive? What are the challenges facing First Nations police services in Canada? Do drug courts encourage police to charge minor drug offenders? Why does the incarceration of parents lead, eventually, to lower earnings for their children? http://criminology.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/CrimHighlightsV16N6.pdf

CBC News (Edmonton) – Marion Warnica

Prison guards accused of using inmates as weapons to cover up alleged sexual harassment – Officials suspend at least 7 people without pay amid investigation

Earlier reports last week of unrest and panic in the Edmonton Institution among the women inmates seems to have been well founded. Seven employees have been suspended without pay, the suspensions linked “to allegations of sexual assault, assault, harassment and employee misconduct.” The Edmonton police are investigating. http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4378784 Related article (June 2017) CBC News – Marion Warnica Edmonton Institution runs on ‘culture of fear’ and intimidation, report finds – Toxicity in the federal prison was so prolific that investigators compared it to 1950s movie The Blob http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/csc-report-toxicity-edmonton-institution-1.4172365

Halifax Examiner

A prisoner on prisons: “Habeas Corpus in a Nutshell”

This link brings you to the Oct. 17, 2017 edition of The Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. The articles and the links provided, titled “Dialogue on Canada’s Federal Penitentiary System and the Need for Change,” offer a look at conditions inside Canada’s penitentiaries and prisons. On the question of reform, the various authors have identified a bountiful harvest for consideration: “justice, employment issues, programs and education, food and nutrition, visits and correspondence, reintegration and parole, media and communications, a focus on punishment, health and dental care, and mental health care” as key areas of reform. https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/a-prisoner-on-prisons-habeas-corpus-in-a-nutshell/ Related article: CBC News – Joe Lofaro Ontario issues new bail policy to ease strain on jails – Release low-risk offenders into community, ensure conditions ‘realistic,’ prosecutors told http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4378273